Somewhere, in the vents of Fornax, there was a pulsing, red-and-yellow chrysalis.

A chrysalis that was ready to hatch.

~

The little crocodile could barely see. Everything was red and blurry, and she could not move her head. That's right, she. The croc was aware of that now when she had not been before. How strange. And she could...

Think.

That, too, was new.

She thought about her lonely little milieu, even though she wasn't lonely. She thought that maybe there were other places she could get to. She wondered if those were red as well.

Suddenly, a new thought intruded upon her mind. 'Warm. I need to be warm.'

It seemed to be urgent, so she obeyed it.

She tightened her muscles and shoved against the side of her colorful prison, desperate to get out. She could already feel the deliciously warm heat from the vents reaching out to her, singing to her, calling her name.

She pushed harder.

@Wilder

Deep in the depths of Fornax's ocean, Lamia was riding the ever-shifting currents, staring blankly ahead, as she always did, but thinking deeply of her current dilemna. She barely noticed as the waves brought her into warmer waters and she only jerked back to the present when she realized that she was getting closer to the surface. She looked around, realizing that she had absolutely no idea where she was. She had never been to this part of Fornax and there weren't any telling landmarks she could find herself by.

There were, however, strange formations nearby that made the creature curious. She swam forward, but came to a halt when the water began to scald her scales. She hissed and moved back a little, sending magicka running acorss the surface of her skin, freezing some of the water around her body. It was enough to cool the water around her and she swam forward again, too curious to resist, occasionally freezing the surrounding water to keep herself from burning.

There was a glimmer of red that caught her eye and she instantly turned to follow it, finding herself a little chrysalis with a shadow of something inside. She chimed a curious question into the water and reached forward to touch the gem's surface. She didn't help break it - she had no idea it was ready to hatch, just inspected it for now.

@Heartstruck

@Wilder

It did not work.

She tried again.

The little creature once again shoved as hard as she possibly could against the sides of her prison. She was beginning to ache, but her reticent self refused to admit it.

'I have to keep going. I have to!'

And she did.

As she was pushing, she sensed another living thing near her.

'Dinner? Maybe. I like dinner. I want to get to dinner!' The croc thought to herself.

Lamia watched the chrysalis curiously. Was it...moving? She'd never seen a gemstone move. No, wait, she had, but it was a long time ago. She usually kept to herself. She waited a little impatiently for it to break out, considering helping it along, but pushing that thought out a moment after she got it. It needed to learn independence!

Instead, she waited for the creature inside to break its gemstone prison, going through a catalog of creatures she knew to try and predict what it would be.

...hopefully a fish.

@Heartstruck
You can tag Lamia instead of Wilder!

@Lamia

The chrysalis shattered into glittering pieces of red and yellow, and at the center of the outburst, there was a young crocodile.

~

As soon as she broke out, her mind sounded the alarm: 'HOT! TOO HOT! AWAY AWAY AWAY AWAY AWAY' Her scales were scalded and getting worse. She whipped around in the water, then felt an odd, almost magically cool flow of water.

'There. Need to go there.'

So she gritted her teeth and swam.

'Huh. guess I know how to do that. Cool, cool.'

Even though she didn't have gills, she was perfectly calm beneath the water. Somehow she knew that she wouldn't need air for at least a little while. Either that,

Or her instincts were absolutely horrendous.

The fish jerked back when the chrysalis suddenly shattered, moaning into the water with surprise. She moved back as the thing suddenly scuttled forward, swimming away from the burning hot vents to far cooler water. Lamia, gratefully, followed it away, swimming a few feet away in case it got scared.

Her bulging eyes stared at it curiously. That didn't look like a fish. That looked kind of like Dragon, but a lot smaller. Could Dragon breathe under water? He could certainly breathe air - she'd only ever seen him standing in the swamp so it struck her that this gembound just hatched in a very very unfortunate place. Eyes widened with shock. She had to get it to the surface!

She reached forward with her webbed hands to try and grab the young crocodile and swim upwards as fast as she could.

@Hearstruck
Sorry about the wait - had a busy holiday.